Petition Labour NEC to endorse South Thanet parliamentary candidate
JVL statement in support of Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt
A three-person panel of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee has decided not to endorse Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt as the parliamentary candidate for South Thanet eight months after she was democratically selected. She has no right of appeal.
The panel’s decision was taken on the basis of three tweets that were posted from the Centre for Cultural Change Twitter account, run by a group of academics, to which she occasionally contributed well before she decided to stand as a PPC.
The tweets were as follows:
“Accusations levelled at Jackie Walker are politically motivated.”
“Antisemitism has been weaponised by those who seek to silence anti-Zionist voices. See The Lynching, endorsed by Ken Loach, for elucidation.”
“Accusations of AS levelled in an attempt to discredit the left.”
Rebecca is a dedicated campaigner for the Labour Party and for the politics of Jeremy Corbyn. Herself a BAME comrade – her father is Iranian – she has spent the last eight months campaigning as the candidate to rid South Thanet of its right wing Tory MP, Craig Mackinlay.
The witch-hunt of socialists in the Labour Party must be stopped. Please sign the petition below.
Endorse Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for South Thanet
We, the undersigned, call upon the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to endorse Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt as parliamentary candidate for South Thanet.
Rebecca was democratically selected by a majority of members of South Thanet Labour Party in April. Since then, the Party has introduced her to the public as the candidate and she has worked tirelessly in the community to build a thriving Thanet. That the NEC has refused to endorse her, on highly questionable grounds and with no possibility of appeal, is absolutely appalling and a breach of the tenets of natural justice.
We call upon the NEC to reconsider its decision immediately and to endorse her forthwith.
The Labour party needs to become democratic again. That means respecting the decisions of local parties.
I’m not Jewish, but the alleged AS comments seem perfectly OK to me. At the very least Rebecca should have a right of appeal, although preferably would be re-instated
Rebecca will be an excellent candidate and the allegations against her are ridiculous and outrageous and an example of guilt by association that would be unsustainable in any fair minded organisation.
Stop the witch hunt
South Thanet voted by a majority for her to be their candidate. Democracy must prevail.
Rebecca will be an excellent candidate.
It seems the NEC aren’t fans of democracy. 0/10
Local parties must be allowed to select their own candidates, and party processes must have appeal stages.
This is very depressing to hear about
Who were the three committee members who made the
Decision to not endorse RSG.
As a non Jew I believe that Rebecca’s comments were purely about the injustices that happened, and that anti Semitism was used out of context. Just my thoughts, no wish to offend. Reading up on this lady I would be keen to support her, we need good people within the Party.
It really has come to a pass when statements of the blindingly obvious are ruled as being beyond the pale.
The only question is whether the panel is bent or running scared?
It is about time that the Labour party made a clear statement that anti Zionism is not Antisemitism.
This woman is being scunnered by the same Labour HQ apparatchiks that are out to get me for http://www.tinyurl.com/israelihra
I am right behing Rebecca, so much so that I want to donate cash to her legal appeal. But I can’t see how to do this. There is a fundraiser link after you’ve signed the Change.org petition but I’ve found (to my cost) that that money just goes to Change.org, not to Rebecca. So what musy I do to donate?
This is the correct link https://www.gofundme.com/reinstate-rebecca-as-parliamentary-candidate
The comments she tweeted are not antisemitic in the least and are a reasonable point of view.
She expressed a political opinion. It was not critical of Jewish people either explicity or implicitly.